1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electrical connector assemblies and, more particularly, to electrical connector assemblies including an insulative housing member disposed within a conductive shell.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrical connectors typically comprise multiple components such as a metal shell, a metal bracket, and an insulator that houses a plurality of contacts. The metal shell partially encloses the insulative housing, and the metal shell and the insulative housing are both secured to the bracket with the shell in physical and, therefore, electrical contact with the bracket. This electrical contact provides electrical shielding for the connector. The insulative housing itself can house multitudinous individual electrical contacts which are electrically isolated from each other within the housing.
Typically, electrical connectors are employed within hardware systems such as personal computers. With the insulative housing exposed, external contacts can plug into the electrical contacts to electrically connect individual contacts.
The connectors, when mated together, provide electrical connection between separate pieces of hardware. The use of such connectors allows hardware to be reconfigured because a connector may be mated and unmated to several different connectors over time. This continual process of mating and unmating, however, can create stress on the connector itself.
Over time, repeated matings and unmatings can loosen the electrical and physical connections between components. Specifically, pushing down while mating and pulling up while unmating places stress on the electrical coupling between the metal shell and bracket and the physical coupling between all three components. Over the course of a connector's life, these repeated stresses can cause fatigue and ultimately failure of the physical coupling.
Barbs have been used in earlier electrical connectors. However, barbs can be prone to stress fatigue. Barbs tend to be small, tapered protrusions that jut out of the plane of the mounting surface of the bracket. These small, tapered structures can fatigue much faster that larger, less tapered structures.
Thus, there has been a need for an improved mechanism for coupling the separate components of an electrical connector together. Additionally, there has been a need to have a mechanism to reinforce the coupling that does not significantly add to the cost of manufacture.